Jakarta – Press groups are deeply concerned that the newly-passed law on electronic media could pose a threat to press freedom in Indonesia.
The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) and other groups, including the Legal Aid Institute for the Press (LBH Pers) and the Indonesian Legal and Human Rights Aid Association (PBHI), are currently preparing a request to the Constitutional Court to review the law.
The 2008 law on electronic information and transactions (ITE) contains numerous legal weak points potentially prejudicial to the press, AJI said in a statement released Saturday.
The plan for a legal challenge came after legislator Alvin Lie recently filed a defamation lawsuit against journalist Narliswandi Piliang over his article published in the Kompas Readers Forum's mailing list.
If convicted the journalist faces up to six years' imprisonment and a fine of Rp 1 billion, according to the law.
The article alleged that coal mining company PT Adaro Energy bribed the National Mandate Party (PAN) through its legislator Alvin Lie to influence the proposal in the House of Representatives to investigate PT Adaro's initial public offering.
In June the House turned down a request from 34 lawmakers to investigate the suspected transfer pricing case involving the country's second-largest coal producer.
Nine of 10 factions in the House denied the request, saying that despite the potential significant loss to state revenues, it was "corporate crime and not related to the public interest".
Adaro was allegedly involved in transfer pricing when it sold coal to Singapore-based coal firm Coaltrade Services International Pte. Ltd. – whose shares are owned by Adaro shareholders – at a below-market price of $32 per ton, despite prevalent high coal prices reaching an average of $95 per ton by the end of the year.
AJI and several media groups have warned that the new law could silence the press, through its provisions on defamation, by threatening potential violators with jail terms and fines, which are heavier than those stipulated in the Criminal Code.
Police also summoned Agus Hamonangan, moderator of the mailing list, on September 4 for questioning about Narliswandi's article.
The AJI said that although Agus was only a witness in the defamation case, he could later be charged under the ITE law.
The House passed the law not long after the passage of the 2008 Law on the Openness of Public Information.
Earlier, the Press Council had appealed to the President against signing the ITE bill to make it into law.